more 8bit style music

This is the music for the first stage of Kung Fu Guns, an Amstrad CPC computer game made out of the fast drawing and design genious of Jon Cortazar (Relevo), the coding wizardry of Fran Gallego (Byte Realms) and myself (Abylight Studios) in just 24 hours, for the BITBITJam 3rd edition.

The game is available here, but expect a properly finished version before the end of the year!
http://gamejolt.com/games/kung-fu-guns/162292

By the way, this is the first tune I have composed for the Amstrad CPC computer since 1991. I think the last one I did was for The Light Corridor soundtrack!

For the curious, this was composed using using Arkos Tracker, at 25hz.

Also, don't forget to check out my main SoundCloud profile for more of my old soundtracks! https://soundcloud.com/joemcalby

Kung Fu Guns - Stage 1 (Amstrad CPC, 2016)

Hostages (also known as Operation Jupiter and Hostage: Rescue Mission) was my first published game at New Frontier, for which I drew the sprites and programmed the music for ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and MSX. The original music was composed by Charles Callet for the Amiga 500 version. This was also the first game of a very long and fruitful relationship with Infogrames.

Hostages - Full soundtrack (ZX Spectrum 128, 1990)

Menu theme of Mystical, for the ZX Spectrum version. The music is based on the original composition for the Amiga 500 version of game.

Mystical (ZX Spectrum 128, ~1990)

ZX Spectrum track composed probably in 1991~92 with my Compact Editor (www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0018925) .

Vintage 8 bit - Sonomech Warrior (ZX Spectrum 128, 1991)

When I composed this tune I thought about a war between Lemmings of different factions. It was meant to tell a story funny at first but with a sad ending.

It stars with the wise men of the tribes deliberating about going to war, then it's the call to arms where the lemmings start gathering and marching to the battlefield. The battle part follows, in crescendo, until the peak of the battle, and the end of it, leaving thousands of Lemmings lying dead or hurt over the battlefield (use your imagination!). A final sad melody reminds that in every war both sides lose.

Composed probably in 1990, using my ZX Spectrum Compact Editor tracker and recorded from it using ZXSpin.

www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0018925

.Z80 file with the editor and the tune loaded available. Just ask for it!

Lemmings go to War (ZX Spectrum 128, 1991, unreleased)

Another tune rescued from the past. I did this in 1991 while doing the military service, in the barracks, where I managed to bring my beloved ZX Spectrum +2 computer.

I know the tune is pretty boring, depressing and repetitive, but that's how it turned out.

Composed with my Compact Editor:
www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0018925


Walking Knight (ZX Spectrum 128, 1991, unreleased)

In 1991 I composed this song (during the military service) for a game about "El Zorro" which was never released. If I remember correctly this was my second Game Boy song after Pop Up / Cool Ball, which was also composed during that time. Bomb Jack soundtrack for Game Boy followed this one.

Some seconds of the intro are based on the intro of another song named "Aire" by the Spanish group Mecano (loved that one!). I would change that part later, but since the song was never used it still has that part on it.

By the way, recorded from my own Game Boy emulator (AJGB), with sound accuracy certified by myself! ^_^

Vintage 8 bit - Fox Power (Game Boy, 1991, unreleased)

This tune was composed for a very rare Game Boy game named Metal Masters, but it was never used. The game suffered many delays during the development (years!), and in the end I composed a completely different soundtrack for the final release.

It is one of my first where I used pseudo stereo effects on the Game Boy. Recorded from my own GB emulator.

Fact: The original game boy console had 4 shades of grey to represent the graphics. We developed a technique to show up to 7 shades of grey on this game, taking advantage of the LCD persistence, but in the end Nintendo didn't allow us to use it, arguing future compatibility. Needless to say, the game looked amazing (for a Game Boy) with 7 "colours" instead of 4!

Here's the track which was finally released in the game.
https://soundcloud.com/joemcalby/metal-masters-gb

Metal Masters prototype track (Game Boy, 1992, unreleased)

Another of the tracks from the new ZX Spectrum and MSX-2 game - The Sword of Ianna - by Retroworks (www.retroworks.es).

The game will be presented and released next 30th of September, 2017 in the first RetroZaragoza event.

This will be my next ZX and MSX full soundtrack since 1990 I think. The last one was probably Mystical. I composed very long soundtrack later (Sokoban) during the military service in 1991, but the game wasn't released.

It wasn't easy to come up with this soundtrack after so long, specially considering the style, which is very different from what I used to do, but in the end I'm quite happy with the result and I think it fits the game very well. 

Check the game, I'm sure you'll love it! Here's the official page:
http://theswordofianna.retroworks.es/

The Sword Of Ianna - Tower Of Sorcery (ZX Spectrum 128 / MSX-2, 2017)

This one was part of the soundtrack of an unreleased game named Sokoban Perfect, made in 1991 for Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and MSX computers. Composed for the (surprise) desert stage.

The unreleased game can be downloaded at http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0018361

Composed with my Compact Editor (http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0018925) .

Sokoban Perfect - Desert (ZX Spectrum 128, 1991)

This small soundtrack was composed for a promotional game named "The Morning Adventure", also know as "Mañanitos Bollycao" in 2003. It was available only in Spain and only a few copies exist. It was the last Game Boy Advance game I composed music for.

At that time I programmed a synthesizer on PC which faithfully emulated the Nintendo sound system used for the GBA games, except that it sounded better because of the higher resolution and sample rate mixing. With that program I was able to sequence GBA soundtracks without using the actual console or the expensive official MIDI cartridge.

The music is recorded from that synthesizer at a sample rate of 44k instead of 15k. All instrument sounds were sampled from my tiny Korg X5DR sound module.

The Morning Adventure - complete soundtrack (GBA, 2003)

Soundtrack for an unreleased Game Boy Color game, composed in the year 2000. It was one of my latests soundtracks for Game Boy Color. Unfortunately the game was never published, though it was one of the most amazing racing games ever made for the console!

Radikal Bikers - complete soundtrack (GBC, ~2000, unreleased)

Short tune composed and dedicated to friends Hannah and Robin, NES style.

First chiptune in many years! Using the sound set I created for Music On - Retro Keyboard, with sounds of my NES soundtracks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2rb3YwU5dM

Hannah & Robin (NES style)

This one was part of the soundtrack of an unreleased game named Sokoban Perfect, made in 1991 for Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and MSX computers. This was all based around a fragment of "Fortune plango vulnera" from Carmina Burana. It was composed for the medieval stage.

The unreleased game can be downloaded at: http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0018361

Composed with my Compact Editor: http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0018925

Sokoban Perfect - Maximum, Minimum, Horroe! (ZX Spectrum 128, 1991, unreleased)

This is one of the earlier test tracks where I toyed with sample playback on the ZX Spectrum (before coding the Compact Editor). For the drums I used very small fragments of beeper sounds, while the voice samples were played using the AY chip.

It's a pretty boring and repetitive track, but it's also nice because it has samples in it ^^

The Get Ready sample was later used in the Light Corridor game soundtrack.

I did other tracks with small drum samples but only one of them was ever publised in a game; the pause music from Magic Johnson's Basketball.

It has been recorded from the ZXSPin emulator, which is the only I've found capable of reproducing the beeper sounds from this sound driver. I swear it sounded better on the real machine back in the time!

Get Ready (ZX Spectrum 128 + beeper, 1989)

Some more tracks from "The Sword of Ianna" game by Retroworks (www.retroworks.es).

This is actually 3 different tracks corresponding to the intro sequence, ending sequence, and player death jingle.

Again, the game is free to download and play for ZX Spectrum 128 and MSX-2 computers. Check it out!

theswordofianna.retroworks.es/

The Sword Of Ianna - Intro + Outro + Death (ZX Spectrum 128 / MSX-2, 2017)

In the late nineties I did several soundtracks for the games of Velez & Dubail, published by Infogrames. At first I would also do the sountrack for Wacky Races, but they needed a really fast sound driver, as the game would be some of the most advanced ever for the console (just check it, it's amazing). Unfortunately my driver was too slow for what they needed, and writing a new and faster one was far out of schedule and budget.

The tracks you hear are the first test, just to check if the game could deal with the sound driver CPU consumption. The tunes only use 2 channels (+ noise), as one entire channel had to be reserved for the sound of the car engine. They use many stereo effects, so be sure to put your headphones on.

In the end the job went to Manfred Linzner who did a wonderful work.

Wacky Races - test tracks (GBC, 1999, unreleased)

This music was part of the soundtrack for an unreleased game named Sokoban Perfect, made in 1991 for the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and MSX computers. I really don't remember for which stage this was composed...

The unreleased game can be downloaded at www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0018361

Composed with my Compact Editor (www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0018925) .

Sokoban Perfect

Melancolía

Sokoban Perfect - Melancolía (AY-3-8912 ZX Spectrum 128 / Amstrad CPC / MSX , 1991, unreleased)

Soundtrack for Ronaldo V-Football and UEFA 2000 soccer games for the Game Boy.

UEFA 2000 shares some sound flavour to my soundtrack for V-Rally. For Ronaldo I tried to compose something more festive, with some inspiration from my favourite game musician :-)

Ronaldo V-Football + UEFA 2000 (Game Boy, 1999~2000)

My first commercial tune for the Game Boy, released in the US as Cool Ball.

The game was only 32k in size (just like Bomb Jack) but very entertaining. It only had this tune and a small jingle for the game over. I was doing the mandatory military service and composed this tune in a weekend off.

I remember how amazed I was about the new possibilities of the Game Boy sound (specially the noise channel and the pseudo stereo), compared to the 8 bit computers I used until then!

Pop Up / Cool Ball (Game Boy, 1991)

most of the music is straight from tiktok.  the other music is from a friend

more 8bit style music

Steven Hobbs